Curse Of Trodain
by Ohfortheloveofpete
Summary: A hero goes on a journey to save Trodain after it falls victim to a horrible curse...based on Dragon Quest VIII.
1. Chapter 1: A Thorn In One's Side

_Hey there! Today I'm going to make a fanfic based on Dragon Quest VIII...though admittedly that wasn't the first one I played. The first one I played was Dragon Quest IX...that particular game was my second. Dragon Quest VI was number three...and Dragon Quest V is my fourth. Perhaps Dragon Quest IV will be my fifth. I don't know. I like playing those sort of games on my iPad._

 _And yes, I'm going to add a few twists of mine...I wanted to be creative when writing this fanfic, after all._

 **Chapter 1: A Thorn In One's Side**

It had all started so swimmingly for King Trode. His daughter was going to get married soon. He was rather thrilled about it, to say the very least. Granted, his daughter Medea had said that she wasn't too fond of the King of Argonia's son, Prince Charmles. Apparently, he wasn't the best person in the world. The citizens of Argonia were in fact worried that he might end up becoming a tyrant...bad rulers came harsh taxes...if they got impoverished by his taxes, they weren't going to be too happy with him, to say the very least.

At the very least, his father was trying to make him a better person...but he didn't appear to having much success. He just wasn't much of a listener. In fact, he stuck earplugs in his ears every time he tried to lecture on him on being a proper ruler. Granted, King Clavius was a much better ruler than he probably would be...but of course he wasn't going to be around forever...even if people in Argonia kept shouting

But he could cross that bridge when he came to it. Surely, Prince Charmles wasn't such a terrible person. Then again, he heard that Prince Charmles liked to play football with puppies. It was a rather...unusual hobby.

Little did he know that at that very moment, his jester Dhoulmagus was hatching a diabolical scheme.

At that very moment, Princess Medea decided to pay her father a visit.

"Father, I think that something bad is going to happen today..." stated Princess Medea. She could feel it in her blood.

"Nonsense! Today is going to be the best day ever! And as soon as Prince Charmles completes his Argonia trials, he'll be able to marry you!" exclaimed King Trode.

"I'm not so sure if I want to marry him..." answered Princess Medea. Of course, as she was aware of, it was family tradition to marry the Argonian heir to the throne...but she knew that Prince Charmles would likely be demanding from her. Apparently, he thought that girls should be typical housewives rather than anything else.

Not only that, but she was more interested in taking a musical career than housekeeping. She enjoyed playing the piano in particular. She had lost count of how many songs that she could play on it.

In particular, Draco liked to hear her play the piano. He was sweet like that.

Of course, her father had heard a rumor that Prince Charmles was terrified of lizards. But surely that wouldn't hold him back, right? The Argon Lizards typically weren't that dangerous considering that they typically spent much of their time sleeping. And he didn't even need to slay the Argon Lizards in order to get their hearts...he just needed to make them spit them out. Oddly enough, it didn't appear to be their actual hearts considering that they were fine afterwards. It was weird.

Suddenly, King Trode heard noises from the chamber where they kept a certain scepter.

He immediately started to worry. According to what his father had told him, it contained a pure evil demon. It was not something that he should use as a back scratcher. He did not believe that demons actually existed, but he decided it would be best not to risk removing it from its protective circle. He had no idea what would happen, after all. And he did not care to find out.

Immediately, they went inside to investigate.

As it turned out, there was Dhoulmagus.

"What are you doing?" asked King Trode.

"I'm taking this scepter for myself, that's what!" exclaimed Dhoulmagus. It was time for him to get the fame that he felt that he deserved.

"Are you insane?!" bellowed the king. If he took the scepter away from its protective circle, bad things were going to happen. Bad, bad things. It was not something that Dhoulmagus should play with.

"Why are you even doing this?" asked Princess Medea.

"Let's just say that you never took me seriously..." answered Dhoulmagus.

 _King Trode threw a pie at Dhoulmagus's face._

 _"Hey!" exclaimed Dhoulmagus._

 _King Trode laughed at Dhoulmagus's expense._

 _A few days later, he gave Dhoulmagus a wedgie._

 _"My_ _underpants!" bellowed Dhoulmagus._

 _Once again, King Trode simply laughed._

 _A few days later, he spied on Dhoulmagus while he was in the shower._

 _"Really?" asked the jester._

 _King Trode laughed once again._

"Whose laughing now?" asked Dhoulmagus as he took the scepter from its circle.

"This can't be good for anybody." answered King Trode. Somehow, he knew that Dhoulmagus was going to use that scepter for evil. Some mages were crazy.

Immediately, he cast a spell to turn King Trode into a spell.

"I'm hideous!" screamed the king. Of course, he wasn't that much of a looker to begin with.

"Father!" exclaimed Princess Medea.

"You're next, sweetheart." stated Dhoulmagus.

"Oh...no..." said Medea. What was she going to do?

Immediately, he cast a spell to transform Princess Medea into a horse.

A few seconds later, she began to neigh. At least she didn't end up getting turned into a donkey. People would think that she was stupid...which she wasn't.

"Well, off to visit another kingdom. I'm sure that they'll appreciate me as an advisor..." noted Dhoulmagus. He had gotten sick of being a jester to be honest. Personally he had some advice he wanted to give to kings...like not treating him as a laughingstock. Of course, with his new staff, that seemed rather unlikely.

Immediately, he left the boundaries of the protective circle.

However, surely afterwards, he began to feel strange. He kept hearing a voice telling him to do evil things...such as kill the descendants of the Seven Sages.

Eventually, he caved in...and he decided that he was going to do just that.

As it turned out, the first person on the hitlist was his teacher Master Rylus...who for some strange reason nobody other than Dhoulmagus had ever seen the face of. He was kind of...shady.

Wasting no time, he went off on his trip.

As he did so, thorns began to come out of his staff.

Quickly, they began to encircle the entire castle. Fortunately for Medea and Trode, they were inside the protective circle and missed being hit by that particular curse. Unfortunately for everyone else inside the castle, they ended up being transformed into plant people. Not exactly their idea of fun.

Well, except for one. As it turned out, one particular knight inside Trodain was immune to the curse. King Trode had in fact adopted him at an early age. Why you may ask? Well, he didn't exactly have many places to go. His parents had seemingly vanished off the face of the earth, it seemed.

Personally, King Trode wondered where he was from. Oddly enough, his daughter seemed rather smitten with him, though it was probably his imagination. He had decided to call him Draco...because for some strange reason he reminded him of a dragon.

Immediately, Draco began to examine his surroundings.

"Where am I?" asked the knight. Quickly, he began to realize that something was wrong. It appeared that some evil wizard had cast a curse on Trodain...he did admit that King Trode wasn't always that popular of a king...or the most good-looking.

Quickly, he began to look around the castle to investigate. It appeared that it was now covered with thorns...and so were everyone else inside the castle.

"Medea! King Trode!" exclaimed Draco.

Oddly enough, it appeared that they had heard him, because he heard King Trode calling out and a...neigh?

"What is going on here?" asked the knight. Perhaps one of the horses had broken out from the stable and was running loose? Sometimes that happened...but he was always able to fix that.

Suddenly, King Trode and Medea approached him. But they weren't exactly themselves. It appeared that someone had cast a curse on them.

"Oh dear...you don't exactly look the same, do you?" inquired Draco. Something was wrong.

"We've been cursed!" exclaimed King Trode.

"I can see that." answered the knight. He wondered who had done such a thing.

"And since when do you talk?" asked the king. He was under the impression that Draco was mute.

"I didn't have much to say, I suppose..." stated Draco. For some strange reason he also knew several other heroes that never seemed to talk...though he couldn't quite remember their names. Were they all off on RPG adventures somewhere? He heard that last year a silent hero had managed to slay Ogrodemir...and the year before that a silent hero managed to slay Mortamor.

Maybe he would end up slaying a demon lord one day. Who knows?

"Do you know who did this to you? And why the castle is covered with thorns? I feel sorry for the poor souls that were inside the castle when this happened..." noted the hero.

"It was Dhoulmagus!" exclaimed King Trode.

"Dhoulmagus?" asked Draco. For some strange reason he got the feeling that Dhoulmagus would stab King Trode in the back one day. Maybe he should have warned Trode of his suspicious. But it was too late now.

"Yes, Dhoulmagus!" bellowed the king.

Medea neighed once again.

"How do we break the curse?" asked Draco. He wished that he knew a decent witchdoctor.

"We must hunt down Dhoulmagus immediately! It's the only way to break the spell!" exclaimed King Trode. He did not want to spend the rest of his life looking like a troll. Trolls stole candy from babies. He did not steal candy from babies! Well, except maybe once. But he was asking for it!

Princess Medea neighed in agreement. She didn't want to have to spend the rest of her life as a horse...though admittedly she was a lot faster now.

Draco sighed. It looked like he was going on one heck of an adventure. Personally he was under the impression that he was going to be serving the rest of his life as a guard at Castle Trodain...not that he minded since he got to be with Princess Medea, who he was rather attached to.

But it appeared that he had no choice...not unless he wanted to spend the rest of his life living in a castle full of sharp thorns that would probably prick his finger when he touched them.

Immediately, he set out with King Trode and Medea, unaware that this was just a sign of things to come.

 _A few days later..._

Draco flashbacked to that particular incident. Sometimes he had to remind himself how he had gotten into this mess. He wished that he could hurry up and simply find Dhoulmagus so that he could go home. But unfortunately it seemed Dhoulmagus was on a quest himself, judging from how much that he tended to move. Where was he headed?

Since then, he happened to have a best friend...in the form of a bandit in Yangus. Perhaps he should pick a better choice in friends...but Yangus seemed loyal enough. The more help they had to stop Dhoulmagus, the better.

Suddenly, his pet mouse Munchie crawled out of his pocket. Fortunately, he had been outside when the curse hit, so he didn't end up becoming a vegetable.

Curious, he appeared to have picked something up with his nose. Draco wondered what that was.

He was about to find out.

Out of nowhere, three slimes came leaping out of the bushes.

"Hi! We're going to pillage your carriage and make off with your gooluables!" exclaimed one of the slimes.

"No! Not my carriage! Do something!" screamed King Trode.

"Oh snap!" bellowed Draco.

"Get ready!" exclaimed Yangus.

Fortunately, those slimes did not have the power to back up those claims, and they went sent home packing after a brief RPG battle with Draco and Yangus.

"No fair! You must be goovincible..." noted the leader of the slimes as he went back into the forest.

"What's with the slime puns?" asked Draco.

Yangus shrugged. He wished that he knew the answer to that himself.

"Where's Medea?" questioned Draco.

"Over there!" exclaimed Yangus.

At that very moment, Princess Medea revealed herself. Perhaps she had been hiding from the evil slimes that wanted to rob them.

"There you are! You had me worried!" exclaimed King Trode.

Princess Medea neighed. She was really starting to hate all these random encounters. You never knew when they were going to show up. For some strange reason they always wanted about half of their gold coins.

Fortunately, it appeared that there was a direct path to Farebury from their campsite. Hopefully they wouldn't have any more random encounters for a while.

Oddly enough, there appeared to be a fire out in the distance, as there was smoke clearly visible. It looked like a job for the fire department.

Personally, Draco wondered what was going on.

Fortunately, their trip to Farebury was uneventful. By the time they got there however, it was sunset. Draco knew that the many, many monsters lurking the World Of Dragons got more aggressive at night, so he figured it might be best for him to stay in town for the time being.

Fortunately, he knew that there was a inn that they could stay for the night. That way they wouldn't be groaning like zombies when the sun came up.

As soon as he entered, he noticed that there appeared to be people glaring at King Trode. Was there something on his face?

He also noticed that there appeared to be a house that was burned down, as he had thought. It appeared that this was the work of an arsonist. He wondered who did it.

Shrugging, he decided to take a visit to the tavern. Hopefully the bunny girls there would provide pleasant company. They always seemed so friendly...though he wished that they would stop flirting with him so much.

 _I hoped you like this fanfic. I'm going to try to make this fanfic original even if it's based on Dragon Quest VIII. I like to take preexisting stories and make my own twist of them, to be honest. I think it's fun...though I will come up with something completely original every now and then._


	2. Chapter 2: Get The Crystal Ball

_In this chapter, an angry mob is going to kick Trode out of town. It appears that they don't take too kindly to strangers...especially strangers that are basically trolls. Also, it turns out a citizen of Farebury has been murdered. Oh dear...not too pretty, is it?_

 _Suffice to say, King Trode is not going to visit towns anytime soon. He didn't want people staring at him in the face._

 _Afterwards, a certain citizen of Farebury is going to ask them for help. Of course, they're going to have to go inside a dungeon in order to do it. Fortunately, since it's only the first dungeon it shouldn't be too much of a hassle...at least by_ _comparison_. _Dragon Quest VIII isn't the easiest game in the world._

 **Chapter 2: Get The Crystal Ball**

Stopping by the pub, Draco noticed that there appeared to be a fortune teller at the tavern. Personally he was a bit curious what he was doing in a place like this. Perhaps fortune telling had gotten stressful for him so he decided to have a few drinks?

Apparently, Yangus was enjoying the company of the bunny girls...though admittedly he looked like more a thug than a dreamboat. Yangus had told him that he was part of Pickham, after all. Pickham was full of outlaws, after all. Even some of the monsters outside had gotten into it, it seemed. They were wearing hoods over their faces like they were executioners or something.

Immediately, Draco decided to talk to the fortune teller. Apparently, his name was Kalderasha. He got the feeling that he was rather popular around Farebury. Of course, up until now the NPCs he had been encountering didn't even have names. It must be a hard life being a generic NPC. At least the shopkeepers were rather useful for him. He wasn't going to get very far without getting better equipment.

"I can't believe it...Master Rylus is dead...he just died last night..." noted Kalderasha. Apparently, somebody had tossed a fireball at his house and now he was dead. Completely and utterly dead. They couldn't even salvage his body so that they could resurrect him at the church. It was rather unfortunate.

"I know..." nodded the bartender. He heard that Master Rylus was so powerful too. Not as powerful as his former pupil, it seemed.

At this point, Draco realized that it may be in their best interest to try to get that staff away from Dhoulmagus. Just what kind of staff was it? King Trode hadn't really given him many details.

Draco sighed. King Trode was hoping to ask Master Rylus where he might have gone. Speaking of which, where was he now? He had kind of lost track of him.

"You sure you don't want to go back in the fortune teller business?" asked the bartender.

"Even with my powers, I couldn't save my poor Valentina's parents..." stated Kalderasha. It was one great failure for him.

Curious, Draco noticed that the sun had gone down outside the window. Time sure went by fast these days. Perhaps it would be best if he didn't go outside at night where all the ferocious monsters were.

Suddenly, a citizen entered the tavern. Judging from the expression on his face and the paleness of his skin, he was completely terrified out of his wits.

"What's the matter?" asked Draco. It looked like had seen a ghost...for some strange reason they liked to wear wizard hats.

"There's a monster in town!" exclaimed the man.

"What?!" exclaimed Yangus. For some strange reason they never seemed to get past the enormous gate.

Perhaps they needed to restock on holy water so that they could keep the monsters away.

Immediately, Draco and Yangus went outside to investigate. It was a good thing that they still had their weapons and armor.

But as it turned out, it was only King Trode. An angry mob had gathered outside and were throwing rotten tomatoes at him.

"Get out of here!" exclaimed a peasant. Unfortunately, monsters were not welcome in Farebury...even if they did use to be human.

"How dare you!" bellowed King Trode. That was no way to treat a king.

"I did warn him that treating people beneath him wasn't such a good idea..." acknowledged Draco.

Fortunately, it appeared that Medea was trying to protect her unfortunate father.

"That's it, I'm out of here!" exclaimed King Trode, leaving through the gate. It appeared that it wasn't such a good idea to go out in public in his current condition. At least Medea had things easier.

Immediately, Draco and Yangus went to follow him.

"Well, there's no way I'm going back in there..." stated the king. It appeared that the townsfolk didn't like him much...perhaps he had been raising their taxes and now they were upset about it.

Medea nodded. She worried about her father sometimes...especially now he had fallen victim to a particularly powerful polymorph spell.

"Excuse me..." said a voice.

"Huh?" asked Draco.

Curious, Draco looked around, and gasped in horror. There was Yangus, picking his nose!

No wait...that wasn't what he was looking for.

Immediately, he turned around to where the voice was.

Apparently, he had attracted the attention of a teenage girl.

"Can you help me? I dreamt about you..." said Valentina.

Curious, Draco wondered if he happened to have a fangirl.

"You dreamt about me?" asked Draco.

"Yes...I heard that you could make wishes come true..." stated Valentina.

"OK...now I think you're being a bit lecherous..." noted the hero.

"Not like that! I was just wondering if you could get a crystal ball for me...my father threw it away, and I would really appreciate it if you brought it back. That way my father could start making more accurate predictions..." explained the girl.

"What do you think?" stated Draco.

"Yes! We should help her! Though admittedly I do want to get back to hunting down Dhoulmagus..." acknowledged Trode.

"I suppose that makes sense..." answered the hero. Perhaps Kalderasha could help track him down if they got his crystal ball back.

Fortunately, Valentina allowed them to rest at her house. From there it was a simple matter of searching for the Waterfall Cave.

Of course, since they were outside of town...it was only a matter of time before they started having random encounters.

"Finally...I was sick of being level one..." noted Draco.

Sure enough, several slimes showed up. But they were not alone.

As it turned out, there was also a Candy Cat...who unfortunately did not want to share his candy.

"It's mine!" exclaimed the Candy Cat.

Draco sighed. He was hoping for candy too.

After that random encounter, they noticed that there appeared to be a hut out in the distance.

Unfortunately, that meant encountering more monsters. Draco screamed as a Lips tried to make out with him.

"I already have a girlfriend!" bellowed Draco.

"Aww..." complained the Lips. There just weren't many single adventurers these day.

This was then followed by a Satyr forcing him to listen to horrible music.

"Make it stop!" demanded Yangus as he covered his ears. This was painful.

"I make Justin Bieber look awesome!" exclaimed the Satyr.

And for some strange reason a Capsichum attacking them as well. He was starting to realize why King Trode wanted him to eat his vegetables.

"Eat us!" exclaimed the Capsichum twins.

"But I'm a carnivore..." complained Yangus.

Last but not least, they encountered a Bunicorn. Who would have thought that bunny rabbits would be after them? Well, whatever got them experience and gold, he supposed.

"Am I am a bunny or a unicorn?" asked the Bunicorn.

"I'm not sure..." answered Draco. Strangely, they appeared to be carnivorous.

"Are you alright, Draco?" asked King Trode.

"Yeah...so far the monsters have been easy peasy...I get the feeling that things aren't going to be always like this though..." noted the hero. Chances are things were going to get harder.

Eventually, they managed to reach the hut. They had no idea who would want to live out in the middle of the wilderness like this.

Shrugging, they decided to knock on the door.

"Hello?" asked Draco.

Sure enough, there appeared to be someone residing in that hut.

"Can I help you?" inquired the man.

Curious, Draco and Yangus decided to talk to him.

"As you may know, I happen to sell cheese..." stated the man.

On the mention of cheese, Draco's pet mouse Munchie flared up. He simply loved cheese.

"If you get my tool bag...I'll give you some..." stated the man.

Draco nodded. That seemed like a fair trade.

However, he had no idea where the man's tool bag could possibly be.

"I'd suggest you try looking for a red tree...I believe that was where I had it last..." explained the man.

Hopefully he would take better care of his belongings once he reclaimed the bag.

Fortunately, the red tree wasn't too far from where they were standing, and they were able to get the tool bag.

On the way there, they also noticed that there were two guards in front of Alexandria. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let them in.

"Lousy NPC roadblock..." muttered Draco. Apparently he was just going to have to try again later.

Curious, they noticed that the sun was going down. Unfortunately, that meant that the monsters were going to become stronger.

Sure enough, there appeared to be Drackies out in the sky.

"I want to suck your blood!" exclaimed a Dracky.

"Get your own blood." retorted Draco.

Eventually, Draco returned to the hut to get some cheese.

Unsurprisingly, Munchie was absolutely ecstatic. Just for the record, he had already fed him today...but of course, he still wanted more. He had a surprisingly big appetite for his size.

Immediately, the man in the hut gave a bag of cheese to Draco. Perhaps he should give some to Munchie later to see what would happen.

Oddly enough, he seemed to recall Munchie breathing fire once. Was the cheese he was eating spicy? It might be best if he tried experimenting.

After saying farewell to the man in the hut, Draco wondered if maybe it was time to enter the Waterfall Cavern already. Valentina probably wouldn't be too happy with them if they took too long.

Fortunately, it appeared that the Waterfall Cave wasn't too far from Farebury. It would probably be a hassle otherwise with all the random encounters and all.

On the way there, they encountered what appeared to be a Hacksaurus.

Immediately, Yangus went to fight him...

...but he was sent flying when the Hacksaurus let out a sneeze.

"I think taking him on is out of the question..." remarked Draco. Perhaps they should try again later. Maybe if they were lucky they would end up getting more party members on their journey. That was how RPGs typically worked.

Shrugging, Draco decided to enter the cavern along with Yangus.

"Gee, it's kind of dark..." noted Yangus.

"Spooky..." remarked Draco.

"You bring a light, guv?" asked the bandit. He didn't know how he was going to see in a dark cavern like this, let alone find the crystal ball that Kalderasha had thrown away.

"As a matter of fact, I did. I brought a torch." answered the adventurer. Fortunately, Munchie was nice and had helped him light the torch. He was rather lucky to have a pet mouse like Munchie.

Something told him that would come in handy for when he needed to explore dungeons later. He probably would be doing that a lot.

Unfortunately, the Drackies in the cave didn't seem to like light too much...hence the reason they only came out in night. They immediately began to swarm him.

"Stop it!" demanded Draco.

Fortunately, it appeared that they were the weakest monsters inside the cave...as the bubble slimes they encountered later could attest.

"Where did I put the squelch spell in my spell book?" asked the boy. It appeared that there was going to be more than one slime that they were going to encounter in their enormous adventure.

"I dunno, guv..." answered Yangus. It would be really handy right about now. Why were these slimes so bubbly, anyway? They were a lot different from the slimes outside the cavern...at least during the daytime, anyway.

Shortly afterwards...they encountered a Firespirit, who Yangus ended up being burned by.

"Ouch! Hot hot hot!" exclaimed Yangus. He was even hotter than the bunny girls that he had encountered at the Farebury tavern.

Fortunately, Draco gave him a healing spell.

Afterwards, they encountered a mischevious mole...who was throwing stones at him.

"Do I have to give you a spanking?" asked Draco.

The mischievous mole frowned.

Shortly afterward, they encountered a bird. What exactly was a bird doing in a cave? Let alone a mechanical one.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" exclaimed the mecha mynah.

"Who goes around building mechanical chickens?" asked Draco.

Yangus shrugged.

A few seconds later, they encountered a dancing devil.

"This monster doesn't seem dangerous...he just wants us to dance..." stated Draco.

"I've got the beat!" exclaimed Yangus, who was dancing.

Suddenly, one of the monsters made off with his shoe.

"My shoe!" bellowed Draco.

"Hahaha!" laughed the skipper as he attempted to make off with his boot.

"How did Kalderasha make it to the waterfall, anyway?" asked the hero as he reclaimed his shoe. Perhaps they weren't interested in attacking fortune tellers?

Suddenly, they noticed a hammerhood standing right in front of the entrance.

"You're going to have to face me if you want to go any further." stated the hammerhood.

"Alright then..." answered Draco.

"Actually, that was just a test..." said the hammer-wielding monster, moving out of the way.

Shrugging, Draco decided to move through.

Eventually, a waterfall was in sight, as well as the crystal ball.

However, for some strange reason, Draco got the feeling that it was guarded.

Perhaps it would be best if he proceeded with caution.

Slowly, he began to make his way towards the crystal ball.

 _I hoped you like this chapter...so far people seem to be enjoying it. Of course, at the time of writing this I only had one reviewer. Oh well._

 _Maybe I'll get more of them later. I do tend to write a lot of stories, in case you haven't noticed already. I've written forty of them all in fact. I think I've left my mark on at this point. Heh heh._

 _Basically I've been a real busy bee._

 _In the next chapter, well...we're_ _going to be introduced to the first boss of the game. And yes, he can be difficult for first-time players...though personally I didn't find him too hard. I personally find the final bosses of Dragon Quest to always be the hardest. I in particular needed to work on my vocations for Mortamor...though it was rather easy once I got the job done...or rather jobs._


	3. Chapter 3: No Littering

_In this chapter, Draco and Yangus are going to get the crystal ball...but what's this? It appears that they're going to have to fight the first boss of the game first. And yes, he's rather tough for a first boss. But it's not too hard to prepare for the battle if you know what you're doing, so at least that's something. Personally I found Khalamari to be similar in difficulty._

 _And yes, I do have a tendency to have headaches. To be fair, it doesn't happen too much...but I think I can sympathize with Geyzer. Heh heh._

 _And yes, they're going to get the crystal ball for Kalderasha. This isn't a hopeless boss fight._

 **Chapter 3: No Littering**

Draco and Yangus approached the waterfall, ready to claim the crystal ball.

Since it was floating in plain sight, it seemed a simple matter of claiming it for themselves.

However, as it turned out, things weren't so simple. The crystal ball was guarded.

As soon as Draco attempted to grab it, an orange merman showed up, much to his surprise. He appeared to be angry about something. But why was he angry exactly?

"Who are you?" asked the hero.

Taking a closer look, Draco noticed that he appeared to have a scar on his forehead. Did someone hit him on the head? The adventurers and the monster seemed to be fighting a lot lately.

He wondered if it was some sort of battle scar and that he was a veteran.

Geyzer decided to explain just who he was. However, he had a rather odd matter of speaking, and Draco was having a bit of a hard time understanding him.

"I'm the waterfall of the guardian...I mean the guardian of the waterfall! Me can call you Geyzer..." exclaimed the merman.

Draco noted that Geyzer had a tendency to get words mixed up, which he found to be quite strange. Perhaps he didn't understand human speech that well since he technically wasn't human?

"Does this crystal ball belong to me...I mean to you?" inquired Geyzer.

"Sort of...we're getting it for a friend..." explained Draco.

"Oh, alwrong then...message him a give from me...no wittering in the laterfall!" bellowed Geyzer. Where was some Advil when he needed it? His head was starting to hurt again.

"Ah yes...the environmentalists are probably going to be angry at him for that..." noted the hero. Yangus had tipped over a trash can once...people had gotten rather mad at him. He wasn't going to do that again.

Curious, Draco wondered if Kalderasha was not interested in fortune telling anymore. That would explain why Valentina wanted them to get his old crystal ball back so that he could resume it.

"I'm going to need to prove that I'm furious though...I mean serious! Though I suppose I am that too..." stated the merman.

"How are you going to do that?" asked Yangus.

"I'm going to stuffing the beat out of you...and then send you back to Fairbury!" exclaimed Geyzer.

"I suppose that would save us the time it takes to get back..." noted the bandit. Going back and forth between towns could be a pain sometimes.

"But if he does that, we'll lose half of our coins!" pointed out Draco. He was kind of...on a budget.

"Oh, right..." remembered Yangus.

Immediately, Geyzer attacked Yangus and Draco.

Curious, Yangus noticed that the music seemed to have changed...the regular battle music wasn't playing. Instead, something more suspenseful was playing.

"What's with the different battle music?" asked Yangus. He was expecting the music to remain the same.

"We must be having a boss battle..." noted Draco.

"What's the difference?" inquired the bandit, scratching his head.

"Let's just say that this isn't going to be as easy as the enemies we've been encountering earlier..." acknowledged the hero. Perhaps it would be best to take caution so that they didn't end up hurting themselves.

Immediately, Yangus and Draco began to attack Geyzer...but he appeared to be much more resilient than the random encounters that they had been having.

In retaliation, Geyzer clawed Yangus in the chest.

"Yikes! You weren't kidding, guv!" bellowed Yangus, clutching his wound.

"No, I was not." answered Draco as he began to heal Yangus. Geyzer sure packed a punch. And to think he was only the first boss.

Yangus hit Geyzer again, but he was still fighting.

This time, he threw cursed mist at them.

Fortunately for Draco, for some strange reason, the curse didn't appear to have an effect on him. Likewise, Yangus was lucky enough to avoid being cursed.

"What's going on there?" asked Geyzer.

Draco wondered if it had something to do with him resisting the horrible curse that had struck Trodain when everyone else was affected. Perhaps he had some sort of strange resistance to curses?

If so, it might give him an edge against fighting this particular merman.

After Draco slashed his arm, Geyzer whistled for the hammerhood that was previously guarding the door to show up.

Immediately, he attempted to whack Draco with a hammer...but he tripped and fell on his face. It was so hard to find good help these days.

Draco and Yangus hit Geyzer again, causing him to resort to a different tactic.

This time, he spewed out bubbles at Yangus and Draco.

Immediately, Draco and Yangus found themselves trapped inside bubbles. This was not a bubble bath that they were interested in taking.

Besides, seeing Yangus in the bubble bath would probably be horrifying.

However, due to how big Yangus was (especially for his age), the bubble around him quickly burst.

He then freed Draco from the bubble using his sledge hammer, much to Geyzer's frustration.

After another round of this, Geyzer decided to try setting them on fire.

"Ouch! Hot hot hot!" bellowed Draco.

"It burns, guv!" exclaimed Yangus. Fortunately, they were still able to continue fighting.

Suddenly, Drackies from the ceiling flew towards Draco and Yangus. Apparently, they had been woken up.

Immediately, they attempted to drink Yangus and Draco's blood, forcing them to shake them off.

As they did so, Draco noticed that one of the Drackies had decided to suck the blood from Geyzer instead. Perhaps he had not tried out merman blood before. Draco had no idea what merman blood tasted like...but he wasn't really interested in finding out. People might call him a vampire.

However, he had chosen to do so through the scar on his forehead, causing him pain.

"Ouch! Anythere but where!" bellowed Geyzer, shaking off the Dracky.

This gave Draco an idea. Perhaps the scar on his forehead was a weak point.

Immediately, he used his sword to stab Geyzer's forehead to test that out.

"Ow! My headfore!" exclaimed Geyzer. His headache was getting worse. At this rate his head was going to be throbbing.

Draco smiled. It appeared that the scar was in fact a weak point.

Yangus likewise did the same.

Quickly, Geyzer decided to surrender.

"Alright! You lose! I mean you win! I have such an achehead now..." bellowed Geyzer. He was going to need to lie down.

"That explains all the experience points..." noted Draco. Apparently, being hit so hard in the head had given him some sort of brain damage. He was starting to feel sorry for the poor merman.

"Wait, I think I may have heard of you...you're the knight that survived the curse of Trodain, am I incorrect?" asked the merman.

"Yes, I did." nodded the knight.

"Well then, perhaps you able be might to reverse it...what do I know? If you need me I'll be in the fallwater..." stated Geyzer.

Immediately, Geyzer went back into the waterfall.

"Well, I guess that's the end of it then..." noted Draco. Hopefully they would be having an easier time facing Dhoulmagus now that they gained several levels.

Quickly, Draco and Yangus left the cave so that they could head back to Farebury.

As they did so, King Trode decided to ask them a question. A question that he had wanted to ask for a while now.

"By the way, what happened to Master Rylus?" asked King Trode. He had almost forgotten to ask them. Now seemed like the best time to do so.

"I'm afraid he's dead...Dhoulmagus killed him." answered Draco. They were having their funeral in Farebury as they spoke. It must be a rather depressing occasion. Perhaps he should try visiting that funeral himself if he had the time.

"What? That fiend killed his own teacher? Perhaps he realized that we would go looking to him for answers and decided to take action accordingly...curse that Dhoulmagus! I guess we're just going to have to find another lead..." noted the king. Hopefully someone else knew where he had gone...and if there was anyone else he wanted to go after.

"Perhaps Kalderasha could help us hunt him down..." acknowledged the hero. He was a fortune teller, after all. Surely his predictions might be correct.

"That's a great idea, guv!" exclaimed Yangus. Valentina wanted to give them a hint, anyhow.

Immediately, Draco and Yangus went to consult Kalderasha on the matter. Perhaps he would be willing to give them a hand.

However, it appeared that he was still reluctant to do so.

"Why did you bring my crystal ball back? Can't you see I'm not a fortune teller anymore?" asked Kalderasha. He had given up on that a long time ago.

"We kind of...need your help." answered Draco.

"Look elsewhere!" demanded the fortune teller.

Suddenly, Valentina showed up.

"Please, father! I know how much you enjoy it..." demanded Valentina.

"I couldn't stop your parents from dying..." pointed Kalderasha.

"That wasn't your fault..." answered the girl.

"Well, I suppose you're right, but..."

"Please! I beg of you!" demanded Valentina.

"Alright, fine...I suppose I have been away from that business for too long..." stated the fortune teller.

"Yes!" cheered the adoptive daughter of Kalderasha.

Immediately, Draco handed the crystal ball to Kalderasha. It appeared to have a crack in it.

"How did that get there?" inquired the fortune teller.

"It hit a merman on the way down the waterfall..." stated Draco.

"A merman? Don't be silly..." answered Kalderasha. He thought that they existed only in fairy tales.

Oh wait...Dragon Quest VIII was basically one giant fairy tale.

Draco sweatdropped.

"Let's get to work, shall we?" asked the man.

Immediately, Kalderasha used it to pinpoint Dhoulmagus's whereabouts.

Looking closely, Draco noticed the gate that he had seen earlier, along with the two guards.

"This sure is a pleasant job, isn't it, Jim?" asked one of the guards.

"It sure is, Bob...nothing can possibly go wrong." answered Jim.

Suddenly, a fireball was tossed at the gate leading to Alexandria, destroying it completely.

"Oh no! The gate!" exclaimed Jim.

"I think we've failed at our jobs..." noted Bob. Now people could simply waltz right through the gate...unless they decided to stop them. Where did they put their spears?

"Let's get out of here before our supervisor notices us!" screamed Jim.

Immediately, the two guards ran away.

Shortly afterward, Dhoulmagus pulled out his hit list. He had a few stops to make if he wanted to harness the full power of his staff. He crossed off Farebury (and by extension Master Rylus)

"Farebury, check...next stop...Alexandria!" exclaimed Dhoulmagus. He was looking forward to

Wasting no time, Dhoulmagus crossed the bridge to Alexandria.

Shortly afterward, Kalderasha decided to end the message being delivered on the crystal ball. Apparently, Draco and Yangus already knew what they wanted. The only thing they needed to do now was to hunt Dhoulmagus down.

"Oh dear...it looks like Alexandria may be in danger..." noted Kalderasha. He was a bit worried about that small town. There were children living there, after all. What was he planning?

"What can you tell me about Alexandria?" asked Draco.

"Well, I heard that a powerful sorceress lives there...unfortunately, her mother doesn't want her to go on out on an adventure..." answered Kalderasha. Rumor has it that she was so sexy that she could make someone's eyes melt just by having them look at her...though that was most likely an exaggeration.

"I guess we better get going then..." answered Yangus. Apparently, it was past the gate that they had seen earlier. Fortunately, it appeared that crossing that gate wouldn't be an issue anymore.

Draco nodded. And yet...something told him that the monsters in Alexandria were slightly stronger than the ones in Farebury...he might want to get ready.

"Good luck out there. And remember, I'll be there if you want me to show you where to go next..." stated the fortune teller.

Draco nodded once again. That didn't seem like a bad idea.

Still, he was a bit worried. He got the feeling that Dhoulmagus was going to kill again. It appeared that he enjoyed it.

 _Meanwhile..._

Dhoulmagus headed to Alexandria, ready to find his next target.

On the way there, he happened to notice the Tower Of Alexandria. He decided why not pay a visit? He heard rumors that it was a rather magical place.

Immediately, he lifted the door and began to climb to the top of the tower.

As he did so, Alistair noticed him go in. What exactly was he up to?

He got suspicious. He had heard rumors that there were tomb robbers that liked to loot the tower. He decided that it would be best to investigate the matter.

Of course, he got the feeling that Dhoulmagus was a spell caster judging from the staff he was carrying...but he decided not to worry. He was wearing armor that could protect him from magical attacks. His mother had wanted him to be safe, after all. Sometimes she worried about him and his sister (and by extension her daughter) Jessica.

Since she had lost her husband (and by extension his father) in the past, he supposed that made sense...though sometimes he wished that she wasn't so protective of him.

Not only that, but there were monsters living inside the tower. However, they didn't seem to be attacking Dhoulmagus. In fact, the imps seemed happy to have him in the tower with them.

He began to wonder why.

Nonetheless, he decided this was probably an emergency situation. He decided that he couldn't sit just there and let Dhoulmagus do whatever he wanted. So, he decided to follow him to the top of the tower.

Hopefully he was just paranoid and that he didn't actually have the intention to rob the Tower Of Alexandria. Still, he didn't appear to be a resident of Alexandria...

Fortunately, it appeared that the monsters were currently taking a snooze...so he didn't have to worry about them attacking him. Oddly enough, they appeared to be mumbling "Such a pity" in their sleep. He didn't know why. Were they upset about something?

Immediately, he followed Dhoulmagus to the top of the tower.

 _Well, in case this chapter didn't make it obvious...you really shouldn't be tossing things in waterfalls. It's kind of...bad for the environment. Hopefully Kalderasha won't do such a thing in the near future._

 _In the next chapter, Yangus and Draco will be visiting Alexandria. And of course, you probably know already what's going to happen to Alistair. I'm not going to_ _spoil it if you haven't played the game. All I'm going to say is...it's sad. Sound good? Or in this case bad?_


End file.
